Nintendo Download: 4th August 2011 (North America)

Get out the chisel and get on the grid as the original portable Picross comes to 3DS Virtual Console, alongside some Spanish, black-and-white rubber-burning and plenty more.

3DS Virtual Console

Mario's Picross (Game Boy, Nintendo, $3.99) — The classic picture crossword game makes its way across the pond after its 14th July release in Europe. Picross is always a solid purchase and this version is no exception, as our Mario's Picross review explains.

WiiWare

Monochrome Racing (Nordcurrent, 500pts) — Minigame pedlars Nordcurrent surprise us with an old-school racing game with more than a touch of Micro Machines to it. Let's hope it can be that good.

Play & Learn Spanish (Selectsoft, 800pts/$7.99) — The linguistic edutainment industry continues apace with another attempt at teaching Spanish to DSiWare fans following the average 4 TRAVELLERS: Play Spanish. Our own language experts are on the case.

Go Fetch! 2 (Agetec, Inc., 500pts/$5) — Yes, it's a sequel to Go Fetch!, the DSiWare game about fetching a ball. Hopefully it fares better than its lacklustre predecessor, but only time — and our upcoming review — will tell.

Nintendo Video

Pizza Quest – Join Scott on his epic quest for the world's best pizza ingredients. This video from CollegeHumor becomes available today at 3 p.m. Pacific time.

@Kholdstare No kidding. I would've thought that at least support for 3DSWare would've been a little more stable, seeing how (I think) it costs less then retail, but hey, I guess when you're a company that basically says screw you indie developers, you don't have lots of digital games flocking to your store.

Yay for Picross! Boo for now 3DSWare! I'm glad we ended up getting this. I was half certain we wouldn't since we didn't get it on Wii VC. Seriously though, Nintendo needs to start churning out the 3DSWare. Mutant Mudds and rolling western would be a great start!

3. I wouldn't want this butchered 3DS port that has none of the original Super Game Boy's features.

What's butchered about it? You're playing it as if you were playing it on an original Game Boy Pocket which also didn't have SGB features (obviously). Nothing has been removed from the original cartridge.

DSiWare and WiiWare were slow and unreliable too in the beginning. The eshop has only been out a month or so. I'm guessing there just hasn't been time for developers to create, polish, test, and get their games through review yet for 3DSWare. I'm sure it will pick up eventually (though then people will be complaining about weeks of crap - good games take TIME)!

@SKTTR It's not a 'butchered' port at all, the only thing you miss by not playing it on a Super Game Boy is a fancy border and some colours. Pretty much the same as the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong which is already on there. The actual game is still there in its entirety and looks and plays the same as it would do on an original Game Boy or Game Boy Pocket.

I agree that Mario's Super Picross was the (slightly) better game though, it really sucks that America didn't get that on the Wii VC, I didn't know about that until I read this thread

@Mikau94 (45.): I don't think it's illegal since it's such a basic concept. But if anyone has proof i can always take the link out of my comment, no problem. I just wanted to give people an easy way to try out the gameplay. And i'm far away from saying "don't pay for these games since you can play them online for free". There's a certain polish in Nintendo's Picross games that you can't get in online versions imo. In fact these games are among my absolute puzzle favourites.

As for how secure the site i linked is i have to say i've got no clue. Everybody should have made security settings in his browser anyway so i don't really see your point here.

Wow, one game for the Wii-ware and nothing on the VC? First they refuse to release the Operation Rainfall games, then they continue their trend of releasing fewer and fewer games over the Wii's virtual services... WHAT AM IS SUPPOSED TO BE PLAYING, NINTENDO?!? I don't own a 3DS (can't afford it), and I only have a Wii.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go beat Mega Man V for the umpteenth time...

In 1.5 days, I've already played 6 hours of Mario's Picross. I picked it up basically because I had $5 left over from past purchases, and thought it was worth a shot. I can't stop playing it. It's perfect for a quick game to pass a couple of minutes, but that turns into a "just one more" time after time. I'm shocked to say this, but other than OoT, Mario's Picross is my favorite game on the 3DS (including Link's Awakening, which I like and recognize as the "better" game). Every single time I solve a puzzle, I catch myself grinning at the revealed image. Black/White, Green/White, whatever - this is a fun little game.